


But For Me, It Was Tuesday

by TheFirstAcolyte (DocStrunk)



Series: Where You're Going [1]
Category: Psionics: The Next Stage in Human Evolution (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Bandits & Outlaws, Drugs, Escape, Gen, Idols, Original Character(s), Psionics, Telekinesis, The Zodiac Order
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-12
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-05-06 06:12:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5406038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DocStrunk/pseuds/TheFirstAcolyte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not everyone is destined for the big leagues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	But For Me, It Was Tuesday

“What do we do now?”

“Shut up.”

“Ok, but are we going to do anything about this?”

 “Shut up.”

“It’s been like three hours. Are we okay?”

“I just woke up, shut the fuck—“

“Quiet in there!” the guard barked down the hall. The woman sitting across the holding cell closed her eyes and heaved a sigh before yawning and stretching. Gwen was willing to chalk her bad attitude up to drowsiness and their current situation, which was, admittedly, kind of her fault. “Can you get us out?” she mouthed at the green-haired woman. She had to be able to do that, she was an esper. That was all she really knew about her. She was really quiet and hadn’t seemed to care when Gwen had introduced herself. She privately referred to her as “Grump”. Gwen didn’t really know the details, but she certainly looked impressive. She was tall and muscular with piercings in her ears, eyebrow, lip, nose, and tongue. She had some crazy tattoos too. “MIND BOMB” was across her knuckles, there was a bull’s eye over her heart that seemed to be centered on some scars. Down her left arm, there was a crossed off list of phrases: “To protect and to serve”, “Semper Fi”, “Who dares wins”, “Any mission, any time, any place”, “The truth will make you free” and “Fidelity, bravery, integrity”.  Something about the way it stopped mid-bicep gave her the impression that she was saving room for more. She’d studied them extensively as the esper had slept, as there was nothing else to do in this damned cell. Encouragingly, the esper seemed more annoyed than frightened. Her expression softened a bit and she nodded slightly.

“Got out of worse.” she mouthed back and shrugged. That was comforting. They had gotten arrested a few hours ago, technically yesterday, when a cop had seen Gwen do a line of coke on the dash of the stolen car that Grump had tried to pick her up in. Gwen had been able to play them off as a couple of dumb students who had borrowed daddy’s car to see the real wild west. Oh, no! He must have taken the registration out and they had both left their IDs at a bar in Durango! Oh, no! Their smart phones couldn’t get reception to call him because of all the nature or something! One thing that Gwen had learned long ago: it was much better to get arrested if the cops thought you were a rich ditz whose parents were going to swoop in and save them. Unfortunately, the cop had recognized the car and Grump had a nasty nosebleed. Gwen didn’t know why; she’d had it when she’d pulled up. She had seemed worn out too.

It was a bit after midnight now. The station of this podunk little town was almost empty. The only other cop on duty had just left to patrol. Silverton, Colorado was miniscule. It sat in the heart of the Rockies and was pretty well isolated. Only one road ran through it, curling around mountain sides and with a bothersome lack of guardrails in a lot of places. Gwen had overheard someone mentioning that a resident had broken their leg recently and a helicopter had to airlift them to anther town because the roads to the nearest hospital were too narrow and winding for ambulances. In towns this tiny the police weren’t called on very often, unless a tourist was involved. Even then, it was less calling the cops and more knocking on your neighbor’s door and telling them about the trouble. Not a bad place to hide for a little bit, even if you did stick out.

When they had first been locked up, she had asked Grump what to do. Why hadn’t Grump just gotten them out then? She had just said “Sleep for now and keep your fucking mouth shut.” She had sounded annoyed more than upset. Gwen got the impression that this sort of thing happened to her kind of often. Grump had only really been awake for the past ten minutes. Gwen had cat napped a bit, but she wasn’t tired and she was bored out of her skull. There were no other inmates and all there was to look at was the walls, Grump, and a lone camera trained on the cell. Gwen wasn’t even sure if the thing worked. Grump looked up, like she was listening to something.

“Ready to go?” she mouthed at Gwen. She nodded in reply, feeing the adrenaline coming on already. She couldn’t help it, it was always excited to see the power in action and she wanted to know what Grump could do. Gwen nodded slightly towards the camera. Grump nodded in understanding. She looked at the camera and made a small, subtle, come hither gesture with one hand. The cable coming out of the back of the camera cleanly ripped itself out of the wall.

“The Hell was what?!” The cop started. He came out from behind his desk to explore the noise. He stopped in front of the cell and stared in confusion at the ripped cable. Grump made a grabbing gesture and the cop gave out a sharp cry of shock as he quickly levitated into the air, as if held by an invisible hand. She pressed both of her hands together, holding her gaze on the cop. He gasped and went limp. Grump dropped him when it was clear that he was out.

“He’s alive.” Grump said. She walked to the door and looked down at him. She made a small plucking gesture and the key on his belt ripped away and floated in the air. She positioned herself awkwardly against the door. Gwen guessed that she was trying to get as good a look at the lock as possible. The key moved to the lock, clanked against the metal a bit as Grump carefully navigated it to the key hole, inserted it and turned it. Grump must have been pretty damn good; the biggest thing she’d ever seen an esper lift before had been a baseball bat. Gwen wondered if she was a fire starter or mind reader too. She kind of hoped not. “Don’t touch anything. They don’t need any more of our prints, especially not on this key.” With a few small gestures, the door slid open by itself and the key stuffed itself into the cop’s shirt pocket.  As Gwen exited, the cell door slid closed behind her. Grump picked up the cop, walked over to the desk, and positioned him in the chair. It looked like he was passed out or in a deep sleep. There wasn’t a mark on him. Grump stopped and pressed a hand against her forehead. If she hadn’t been built like a tank, Gwen would have said that she seemed unsteady. After a moment, she shook her head and quickly strode out the door. Gwen scrambled after her, unable to keep herself from asking questions.

“What about your—“

“I don’t need it.”

“What about my—“

 “We can get you more. Come on.” She followed Grump out into the foggy, chilly, night.

“What do you mean you don’t need it?”

“I don’t need those car keys.”

“Well, what if we need a new car?”

“Then I’ll hotwire one for us.”

“What if you can’t?”

 “I can fucking fly.” Grump snapped, quietly. It seemed like she wasn’t feeling well. “Now shut up and show me where you hid the candy.” Gwen started leading Grump to the field on the edge of town. From time to time, Grump looked up like she was listening to something again. There must have been a psyker nearby. Gwen was a bit jealous, the psykers never talked to her like that. Sure, the espers were doing important work and they needed to save their power to take care of pressing matters, but she’d still like to know what it was like. The whole reason she was in this shit hole was because she’d caught some heat for holding onto drugs for The Order. She’d only been here for two days, but she must have checked the hiding spot at least fifteen times. The town was less than a square mile so the walk only took a few minutes. They stood on the edge of the park, which was about the size of a football field. There were tennis courts, horseshoe posts, a building with public restrooms, and a gazebo. This town was painfully boring. Gwen led Grump to the women’s restroom and into the handicapped stall. She lifted the lid off of the cistern to reveal the pill bottles that she had duct taped securely to the underside of the lid. Grump removed the tape and grabbed them.

“Good call. It looks like cleaning this place isn’t really a priority.” she commented. The compliment actually sounded sincere. “Look, we can’t go back to wherever you were staying. I dunno how quickly we’ll be hounded, but I don’t wanna run into the local pigs and end up with a murder on our hands. We do not fucking need that heat right now. I’m trying to be subtle for once and these small town fucks will all know that you and I were arrested by now.”

“But…all of my stuff is in my hotel room.” To be fair, it was mostly just cloths, but there was also some molly and a handgun. Honestly, she mostly wanted the molly.

“How long have you been hanging around The Order?”

“Like a year.”

“Whatever you’re losing, I’m sure it can be replaced. You can’t get too attached to your shit, yanno?” Espers were so bad ass. They could just up and leave anything because they had such a strong sense of duty. Zodiac Order espers, anyway. That’s why they were going to take over one day. Why couldn’t that be Gwen? _Maybe soon._ “I’ll do my best to help you out, ok? Your freedom is way more important than any of your possessions.” Grump wasn’t really so bad, she decided. Maybe Grump would put in a good word for her to get the sacrament. She wondered what Grump’s real name was. “Oh, and shit’s taken care of. We have a care package and a ride.” Grump looked up again. “A ride on its way. Let’s go.”

She followed Grump out of the restroom. Grump accidentally slammed her shoulder into the doorjamb on the way out and pressed a hand against her eyes again. Gwen was tempted to ask if she was alright, but something told her that grump might be offended by the question. Grump purposefully led her to the gazebo, sniffling slightly. _Maybe she’s allergic to pollen?_ Grump didn’t enter the gazebo; she walked around the base, looking for something. She seemed to notice something and stopped, laughing quietly. She was hidden from the road and the town from where she was standing. “Signs of decay. Cute.” Gwen, who had followed her, noticed that one of the lattice panels looked much worse for wear than the others. The wood was splintery and seemed thin. “C’mon, it’s in there and we should hide until our ride gets here. You know, my friend was here a while ago and she left something here, just in case someone else came through and needed some supplies.” Gwen hoped it was drugs, she could stand to take the edge off right now. Grump grabbed the lattice and easy pulled it out. She crawled into the hole she had created. Gwen followed, grateful for the cover. Grump appeared to be feeling around for something, periodically sniffling. “These things always tend to go wrong. I dunno if you know. Let’s see if they went wrong before we got here. Here we are.” She held up a small, metal, box with a padlock on it. She saw Grump’s silhouette stick a finger through the loop of the lock and give it a sharp pull. The lock snapped off in two pieces. Some espers had super strength and some had a weird power that made the super strength even more super. She wondered if Grump had it, she was pretty jacked. Grump pulled a pill bottle out of the box and held it close to her face. “Is that hyper? Fuck yes. I mean, it might be light that that’s good too. I can’t see shit.” She pulled out some small, thin cylinders. “I’ll probably need these. Oh, cash. Sick. I think that’s a hundred dollar bill.” Grump pocketed the items and lay flat on her stomach. “We’ll be ok if we run into trouble. God, I love that crazy bitch.” There was a pause. Grump has resting her head on the ground. Gwen decided it couldn’t hurt to make a bit of conversation. Grump seemed more tired than annoyed now.

“Who’s she?’

“JJ. JJ Decay. You know her?”  She shook her head. Jazz had mentioned JJ, it seemed like everyone knew her, but they’d never met and she couldn’t remember the details at the moment.

“Um, speaking of names. What’s yours?”

“Right, fuck. Ursa Major.”

“…Ursa Major?” She asked tensely. Her heart had skipped a beat.

“Yeah. I think some people call me Mama Bear, but it’s Ursa Major.”

“Um…so…” There was really no delicate way to ask, but Ursa Major probably wasn’t the sort of person to mind this kind of question. “Why didn’t you just kill that cop?” Based on what little she had heard about Ursa Major (all of which varied between “fucking awful” and “awesome, yet terrifying”), that had been highly out of character.

“Told ya, trying to be subtle.” She sniffled again and coughed slightly. “‘Sides, he…he didn’t try to hurt us or anything. He was just some backwater cop, not really a threat.” That was amazing. Ursa Major wasn’t a huge name, but she had a rep. The espers who had told her about her had spoken like she was a bogey man. They said she had killed her last cell because they were going to leave The Order. They said she had blown up a school for little kids because it was owned by Abraxis. They said she would beat the shit out of you if you looked at her wrong. They said that she didn’t give a shit about collateral damage. They said Jeremy only let her stay because she was so good at taking down enemies. They said that she had literally come back from the dead.

“Are you okay? You look nervous.”

“I’m fine!” Gwen replied nervously.

“…O…kay.” Ursa seemed to relax. Gwen was pretty sure she had closed her eyes.

Gwen sat in silence, trying to relax, but burning with questions that she was afraid to ask. No, she told herself, people talked. She probably hadn’t done at least most of those things.  Seriously, they thought she had come back from the dead. That was just ridiculous. She heard a car approach. Looking through the gazebo’s lattice, she saw a jeep pull over near where they were hiding.

“That’s her.” Ursa crawled out first, with Gwen close behind her. “Shotgun.” That was fine by Gwen. There was no way she was about to argue. They said she had blinded an Institute agent with needles and left them alive as a message. They said that she used PPICs to do it. Had Jazz ever said that? She couldn’t remember. Gwen snapped herself back to the situation at hand. As long as they got out of here, she didn’t care if she had to ride on the hood. The woman behind the wheel seemed happy to see Ursa. To be honest, Gwen hadn’t really believed that Ursa Major had a friend. The stories she’d heard had made it sound like an unhealthy life choice. The driver was wearing an oversized trench coat and had short, charged, hair that was half black and half blue. Espers always looked so cool. Maybe that was part of how they picked who got the sacrament. Maybe she should start dying her hair.

“Hey, you.” the driver greeted Ursa, looking her up and down. “You’re gross. Also, there’s mud on you.” she added playfully. Ursa was smiling shyly at the driver. The driver grinned and mussed her long, green hair with both hands. Ursa giggled and lightly pushed her away, sniffling again. Gwen was legitimately shocked. “Y’okay?” Ursa nodded. The woman in the trench coat leaned over and kissed Ursa on the cheek. She whispered something into Ursa’s ear and stroked her hair before turning to look back at Gwen. “Heya. I’m JJ. JJ Decay. You’re Gwen, yeah?” She nodded in response. “You still got the stuff?” Gwen nodded and pointed to Ursa. “Sex.” JJ said approvingly as she accelerated. “Let’s blow.”

Soon they were on the winding mountain roads. Gwen was quiet. This JJ chick must be at least as badass, or at least as crazy as Ursa if they were that friendly with each other. Gwen felt a bit unsafe. How could she know that neither of them would snap and do something crazy? No, no, they weren’t Abraxis they were Order. The Zodiac Order took care of its own, esper or not. _I wouldn’t care if I’d known ahead of time. It’s just the surprise._ “So, you’re not an esper, yeah?” JJ’s voice brought her back to her immediate surroundings.

“Y-yeah.”

“Have you ever taken a candy?”

“Uh, no. They haven’t given me one.”

“Oh, so you dunno if you have psi potential?”

“No, not yet. I hope I do, but I don’t know.”

“JJ—“ Ursa tried to interrupt.

“D’ya wanna try one?” said JJ, talking over Ursa as though it was something she was used to. Never mind, Gwen decided, JJ was cool.

“Yes!”

“I don’t know if that’s a go—“ Ursa tried again.

 “Aw, c’mon. She held this shit for us; least we can do is share.” Gwen’s heart lept. Maybe she _was_ one them. Maybe she would bring in the new world too. “Besides, I got the go ahead on this one.” Ursa nodded solemnly. “We gotta not do this in the car though. Trust me, being high in a moving vehicle with people you don’t know is fucking awful. One time, I was driving cross country with this band and someone else was taking the wheel for the day, right? So, I try a kief brownie the singer made and it was waaaaaaaay too strong. Dude ate them like candy, so I thought I’d be fine. Fuckin’ NO. I was out of my skull for nine hours. I legit wasn’t sure if I was high or if I had a serious brain condition. Like, we stopped at this rest stop and I was walking from the stop to the van and I legit was like ‘What if I’m not an esper and I’m not on a trip? What if I’m a crazy homeless person and I just live here but I’m so fucked up that I think I can start fires with my mind and am a driver for a band?’ It was crazy.” JJ rambled a bit more about her brownie adventures as she drove. Suddenly Gwen remembered: JJ was one of Bright’s children; so of course she was fine with her. Compared to Ursa, JJ was way more like the other Zodiac Order espers she had met. She felt a bit silly for being worried, but still, finding out her short-term companion had been Ursa Major had been like finding out that the Unabomber was your pizza delivery guy. Before they hit Ouray, JJ headed East for a while and turned off the road. They walked into the trees for a few minutes, until they hit a small clearing. There was nothing but wilderness all around them. Ursa seemed unhappy. Maybe she was one of those espers who thought that only people born with the power deserved it or something. Maybe she didn’t like Gwen and thought that she shouldn’t have a shot at being an esper. Well, fuck her. She was getting the sacrament and she could suck it up.

“Look, this can be danger—“ Ursa started to say.

“I know. Can I have a Blue?” She asked JJ. JJ held a hand out to Ursa. She sighed, sniffled, and handed JJ the bottle of blue pills before speaking.

“JJ, is this really ok?” Gwen had already eaten the pill. “Alright, just listen to me and do as I say when it starts to kick in, ok?”

“I’ve been doing what you say all night. I wanna do something I wanna do.” JJ snorted and nodded in approval.

“Woah, Ursa! Looks like someone’s sick of your shit. Well…yet another someone, anyway.” JJ lightly pushed Ursa, a playful smirk dancing across her face. “It’ll be fine. Quit worryin’.” They stood around talking for the next ten or fifteen minutes. Ursa seemed wary but JJ was as casual as could be, cracking jokes and teasing. Gwen’s muscles eventually started to ache and she felt a headache coming on.

“Guys, I’m starting to feel sick.” JJ and Ursa both assured her that was normal, but the headache kept getting worse. She sat down and started to breathe deeply and slowly through her nose and out through her mouth.

“Rose, help her.” She head JJ say, somewhat urgently. Rose? Grump/Ursa Major/Rose(?) kneeled in front of her.

“It’s ok. You see that rock?” She said, more gently than Gwen would have ever expected, and picked up a rock. She held it out on her flattened palm. “Try to pick it up with your mind, ok? Imagine an invisible hand—“ Gwen wasn’t listening. Grump/Ursa Major/Rose was still talking. The pain was getting more intense by the second and a shrill tone was drowning out other sounds. Gwen let out a low frustrated moan.

“ _Shut up!”_ She was clutching her head. Why wouldn’t Ursa stop telling her what to do and help? She’d do it after the headache went away. It felt like time wasn’t moving. It couldn’t have been more than a minute since she had spoken though; it couldn’t have been. JJ was talking quickly. Grump was too. She tried to imagine the invisible hand, just to get them to stop talking. She tried to pick up the rock. Nothing happened. She couldn’t focus through the pain. Her head felt like it was going to explode and her muscles were starting to spasm. Her mouth was open but no sound was coming out; she was in too much pain to breathe properly. She felt herself lift into the air and saw JJ grab Grump by the shoulders and was pull her away from Gwen. Grump was yelling something. Her body was in utter agony. Was this supposed to happen? It must have been! She was actually doing It! She felt a brief moment of relief at her accomplishment before violent, painful, spasms began to ripple through her body. With each one, she felt a shockwave emanate from her.  She screamed in pain with each wave and felt her body blindly staggering about in midair. She could feel her muscles start to come apart and her organs felt like they were pulling away from each other. An unbearable pressure was pushing out from within and pulling at her from a thousand directions at once. That was the last thing she felt before her body ripped itself to shreds. Gwen was splattered across the crater of destruction that she had left behind.

Rose and JJ surveyed the destruction. In a circle several yards in diameter, it looked like some kind of bomb had gone off. The ground was ripped up, rent, and randomly tossed around. Any grass or flowers had simply been mulched. Rocks had shattered or embedded themselves in nearby trees. It was a broken, chaotic mess of violence. Rose’s stomach churned as she noticed that a hand had landed close to her. Still, she couldn’t help but let out a shrill, nervous, laugh when she noticed that, by some chance, the middle finger was extended at her. Memories started to rush at her. She tried to suppress them. Now was not the time or the place. This had been different, she told herself over and over and over and over again. She felt a sense of pressure and tension rising within her. She turned away, closed her eyes, and tried to calm down. No one had made her take a Blue. She chose to do that. She must have known the risks. Rose felt a tiny pang of uncertainty at that last thought. No, she couldn’t afford uncertainty right now. She knew. She wasn’t like Rose back then; she was Ursa fucking Major now. She was fucking Mama Bear. Gwen had known so much more when she had taken the Blue. She had to have known so much more.

“Hey, shhhhh. It’s ok, baby. It’s war. There are casualties. You know that.” JJ said soothingly. Rose heard her walk towards her. She took Rose’s hand and carefully led her back to the jeep.  She felt JJ dabbing some napkins or something on her face and neck. Her gut roiled again when Rose realized that she must have been cleaning Gwen off of her. She pitched forward and hurled. Luckily, she had puked enough times to know to hold her own hair back first. She felt a hand caressing the back of her neck. JJ sounded sympathetic, but not bothered. “I’m sorry that this happened to her, but this is just something that happens sometimes. She had the potential, she just couldn’t handle it. It’s shitty but sometimes this is just what happens.” Rose was trying her best not to be there. She wasn’t going to disappoint JJ by freaking out again. JJ wasn’t freaking out, so she shouldn’t either. Especially not after all that fucking therapy. This was not like what happened when she had been awakened. It wasn’t and that had been two fucking years ago anyway. It was time to grow the fuck up. “We have to go, sweetie. Come on.” JJ’s gentle coaxing contrasted oddly with the angry chastisement Rose was giving herself.

“Yes.” Her voice was breathless and thin, but the pressure was gone. The pressure was gone at that was what mattered. They had to go somewhere safe. That was the goal. Nothing matters but the goal. Everything else can wait. Getting back in the jeep was surprisingly difficult. Her limbs felt weak and awkward, like they had fallen asleep, and it was kind of hard to focus, but they were back on the road before she even realized it. Rose made a much needed clothing change and showered in a vacant motel room in Ridgeway and they finally stopped for the night in the Dakota Terrace Campground. The next morning, they stole a car from another camper before hitting the road again. Their next destination was New York City. As they pulled away from a drug store (JJ had insisted that they pick up some Dayquil), a news report came on the radio. A hiker had been the victim of a cougar attack outside of Ouray. It had been far enough away that authorities were advising citizens that there was little to no risk of it coming into the town, but warned that campers staying at the Amphitheater Campgrounds should be on alert and stick to areas close to the grounds if on foot. Rose turned it off. She was feeling calmer. She and JJ had been talking about their methods for giving out the drugs and how they could be improved and made safer. That had made her feel a bit better, as had the medicine. JJ put up with a lot of Rose’s emotional bullshit and Rose loved her for that.

“So, why NYC?” Rose inquired. “If we’re transporting this shit just so that your friends can have a rave, I’m going to eat them all myself.” She joked, trying to seem cheerful. JJ smiled.

“Nah, ‘s bigger. Actually, it’s kind of a surprise.”

“Yeah? What’s up?”

“You know your preferred food source, Ms. Major?”

“Indeed I do, Ms. Decay.” Rose started to feel excited. Like a brawl was about to break out that she really, really wanted to be a part of.

 “Well, they’ve been covertly setting up a new lab in the states.”

“Go on.” Rose’s excitement took on a predatory edge.

“And some of the higher up are coming to inspect it.” She noticed the expression Rose had and laughed. “Jesus! I shouldn’t have said anything. You look like you’re going to jump out and beat the shit out of the next cunt in a suit that you see.”

“And fuck the corpse, firebug.” Rose added in a tone that was maliciously amused, wearing a wicked smile. “And fuck the corpse.”

 “Too bad that Wren chick won’t be able to see when we kick their asses next.”

“I’ll dedicate my fifth kill to her.” JJ gave her a confused look. “I mean my fifth kill of the upcoming fight.”

“I’ll bring my formal tonfa.”

“My gestures as I rip them apart will be ever so demure.”

“I’ll try to avoid burning their fancy duds. It’s not ladylike to singe fine silks and the like.”

“And Clara Cyte will have to ask them kill each other _politely_. I shan’t have her crass ways shame us!”

“And Sirius will have to cut _across_ the grain of their muscles as he’s dismembering them. Anything else just wouldn’t do!” They both laughed uproariously. Rose leaned over and lovingly kissed JJ on the cheek. She relaxed in her seat and closed her eyes. The sun felt warm and, not to be a massive fucking hippy, almost healing.  It really was a shame that Wren couldn’t see how lovely the sky was this morning. Today was going to be a good day, she decided.


End file.
